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HEA responding to wide-spread outages

About 14,000 residents were without power Saturday afternoon after a problem at Homer Electric Association's Bernice Lake substation in Nikiski, an official said.

"The situation at the substation created a voltage problem that automatically shut down 17 circuits that provide power to a total of approximately 14,000 HEA members," spokesman Joe Gallagher said. "The outage began at 1:48 p.m. and the affected area included parts of Nikiski, Kenai, Sterling, Kasilof and south to Homer. "

Gallagher said crews were able to respond quickly and restored power to all circuits by 3:11 p.m.

In an unrelated incident, HEA crews also responded to an outage Saturday evening in the Mackey Lake area that impacted 394 residents. The problem is due to a broken insulator on a power pole, Gallagher said. Further details were not known as of press time.

HEA also responded to a power outage in the Kenai-Nikiski area. The outage affected about 3,000 meters from near Wildwood Ave. in Kenai north to the end of the Kenai Spur Highway in Nikiski. Power was restored at 8:15 p.m.